Around this summer I plan on launching an e-commerce site, and to get the ball rolling, I'm going to give away two $1,000 cash prizes. I'm hoping that I can get the word out for free (or cheaply with an auto friend adder or whatever) just with Myspace, Friendster, etc. However, if for some reason I can't go the free route, what is the best way to advertise? I was thinking that maybe buying a banner (CPM I believe it's called?) would be the best way. Because aren't banners usually priced taking into account average CTRs? Well, I am assuming that offers of $2,000 give aways have better CTRs than other things, so I thought I'd get the best deal this way. The audience I'm going for is the male 18-25 demographic, so I figured buying a banner on a popular forum would get me the most bang for my buck, because the rule with forum banners is that they are usually priced with an atrocious CTR, right? Well, wouldn't a free $2,000 sort of be the exception to that rule? Is my thinking right? Any other ideas? Thanks.
I see ads for contests on forums often. I know that they are often posted on sitepoint which gets a lot of attention.
I've got a couple of competitions on my site (adquick.co.uk), and the best way i found to advertise them was on competiton portals like, theprizefinder.com and loquax.co.uk. I'm sure theres loads others, but they are just 2 that i used. They have brought a lot of people to my site.
1. Get a list of sites that list contests in Microsoft Excel with checkboxes in a column and the URL in the first column. Submit your contest to them for free. 2. Depending on the topic of the forum, you could announce your contest there for free. 3. Include in your signature some information on your contest and keep busy at providing valuable information to people so they visit the link in your signature... for free. 4. Offer to pay a blogger who blogs about contests (check his Alexa.com traffic ranking first) to post a blog for a day which remains at the top of their posts for a given period of time.. not for free. 5. Start your own SEO company that promotes contests through the blog community! 6. Start your own blog on the contest. Promote it on social bookmarking sites like Digg.com, Reddit.com, Jots.com, Delicious, and others. ---------------------------- I'm not allowed to post direct links yet so here's a list of websites to promote your contest at either by buying ad space or doing the things above: http://www.cashnetsweeps.com/ http://www.sweepstalk.com/ http://www.contestalley.com/ http://www.contestguide.com/ http://www.contesthound.com/ http://www.contestlistings.com/ http://www.cyber-sweeps.com/ http://www.familysweeps.net/ http://www.grandmajam.com/ http://www.online-sweepstakes.com/ http://www.grandmajam.com/
post on forums, and email people... Once they see $$$, people are gonna rush in, especially if it's something high like yours.